Lady Dogs to forfeit five games due to quarantine

The Iota Lady Bulldogs entered the Christmas break with a record of 9-3 and they were sitting at No. 7 in the Class 3A power ratings.
Additionally, they were about to face three teams in the Top 10 of their respective classes, which could have possibly moved the Lady Dogs up even higher.
Unfortunately, those three games as well as two others have had to be canceled due to a positive COVID-19 test by one of Iota’s players and they are now quarantined for 14 days.
But the news gets worse.
Not only were those games canceled, they go down as forfeits.
“We reached out to the LHSAA to find out the protocol and were told that any games that aren’t able to be played due to Covid reasons are forfeits and they can not be rescheduled,” said IHS head coach Meghann LeJeune. “Obviously, forfeiting five games is detrimental to your season, but also, right before district starts, having to sit out and do absolutely nothing for two weeks is even worse.
“We were kind of peaking and now, nothing. No shooting, no conditioning, nothing.
“You know, those five games could have been big for us. You go from potentially being something like 12-4 going into the second game of District and now we’ll be 9-8. Now, we’re going to be scratching to keep ourselves above water to keep a home (playoff) game.”
In early August, the LHSAA sent out a 12-page memo that stated games not played for COVID-19 reasons would be considered forfeits and that those games could not be rescheduled or made up.
That goes for all high school athletics across the board during the 2021-22 school year, not just football.
The Lady Dogs had to forfeit last week’s scheduled contests against Rayne and Class 2 A’s No. 7-ranked Kinder.
In addition to those contests, the Lady Dogs had to forfeit last night’s contest against Crowley as well as Thursday’s contest at Class 3A’s No. 3 South Beauregard and next Tuesday’s District 5-3A opener against No. 10 Northwest.
Unlike football where teams play once a week for 10 weeks, basketball has a little more leniency in scheduling. Despite that fact, none of the missed games can be rescheduled.
“Every coach that I talked to that I had to cancel with, before we knew the rule, the first thing they asked was when I wanted to reschedule the game for,” said LeJeune.
All teams have until Jan. 29 to add new games to their schedule, but being so late in the season, LeJeune says she isn’t having much luck with finding teams to play.
“We can schedule new games, but everybody that I’ve reached out to so far, either their schedule is full or they’re not trying to schedule games because Covid has exploded again and they don’t want to end up having to forfeit a game because of a game that they put on the schedule late,” said LeJeune.
As of now, per the 14-day quarantine rule, the Lady Dogs won’t be able to take the court for practice until Jan. 12, just two days before their district game at Mamou.
“We’ll only have two days to prepare for Mamou so you hope that the girls are doing things on their own to try and stay in shape at home,” said LeJeune. “You take two weeks off in the middle of the season and try to go back full throttle the way you were going before, that’s when injuries happen so that’s scary in itself.”
As disheartening as the quarantine is, the health and the safety of the players is LeJeune’s main concern.
With that said, the key is to remain positive and overcome the adversity that they have been dealt.
“The season is not over and anything can happen in the playoffs,” said LeJeune, whose team will have nine regular-season games remaining when they return to action. “We still have a lot of season to play and all is not lost. Hopefully this motivates us through the stretch.
“The one good thing is that this happened to us now and not later in the season. You would hate for it to happen in the playoffs and have it end your season in the first round.”